


Enough

by Kymopoleia



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Dead John, Gen, Happy sort of?, Mama Mary, The only dead one is John
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-03
Updated: 2014-06-03
Packaged: 2018-02-03 07:06:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1735580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kymopoleia/pseuds/Kymopoleia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yes, Dean Winchester has a lot in life. He has an awesome mom, some pretty cool friends, two cool younger brothers, and he's graduating. Like, today. And that's enough for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Enough

Dean's hunting knife slashes through the neck of the vampire kneeling before him, and the spray spatters his coat, shirts, neck, and face with warm blood. He winces, and wipes it off. "How did I do?"

"You did perfectly, Dean." a musical voice comes from besides him. A pale white hand reaches over to squeeze his shoulder. "You did perfectly."

He turned and smiled at her. "Is there anything else you want me to learn, mom?"

She shook her head. "No, vampires were last on the required learning list. Now we just have to teach your brothers, and then we can finally start working. As a family."

"Mom, do you miss dad?"

"Every day. I forgave the man who killed him, but I miss John more than you could ever know." she smiled sadly and squeezed his shoulder again. "Let's go get you cleaned up before the boys come home."

Dean nodded, and let Mary guide him to her car. Well, it had been John's car, once upon a time, but that time was neither here nor there. 

"So, when's your graduation?" Mary asked from the driver's seat. Dean had been staring out the window, eyed half closed as he basked in the late-spring early-summer sun. It was beyond comfortable, and he just wanted to lay in it and sleep. 

"Six o'clock." he says softly. 

"Are you excited?"

"I guess. I couldn't have done it without you and Sammy."

"Don't say that, you're just as smart as your brother, and you've got twice as much sense. I'm proud of you, so proud of you."

He smiled over at her. "I know. You're always proud of me."

"Of course I an, you're my boy! My little college graduate."

"I'm your boy."

The rest of the ride is silent, and when they reach their house they depart to do separate things. Mary goes to the kitchen to prepare lunch, and Dean heads upstairs to shower and get dressed. 

Inside the bathroom, Dean stares into the mirror. He studies himself, every feature he normally takes for granted. He doesn't normally look at himself, he just doesn't have the time. His eyes are bright green, and when he looks close enough he can see the flecks of brown- gold, the girls always say. They say his eyes are prettier than theirs, that his lashes are long and his eyebrows flawless. Dean doesn't know why one would want flawless eyebrows, but he accepts their praise anyways. 

"Dean." He turns, but there isn't anyone there. Had he even heard anything? Had Mom taught him how to deal with this?

He returns to his visage, unable to fight the shudder that racks his body. It's suddenly colder, cold enough to see his breath when he exhales.  Mom had definitely said something about this. 

"Dean." There it is again. A spike of fear goes through him- it can't be a ghost, can it? Can they really have one here, in their home? Who would it be, and when would they have died? Mom had made sure this house had no suspicious history before buying it, that was the whole point of it. A safe place. He didn't have any weapons on him either, so it didn't matter whether or not it was possible, he would be unable to protect himself or his family. 

"Dean."

"If something is fucking with me, then you can go fuck yourself. Tonight is my night, and I don't take many of those. So get out of this house or so help me, I will end you." he looks up at the lights as he speaks, and one flickers. 

"Dean." He glances in the mirror and, and he sees someone familiar. 

Dean turns around, and his breath catches in his throat. "D-dad?"

John nods. Dean doesn't remember much of him, but Mom has a picture of him in a locket she keeps in the impala. He doesn't look any different than all those years ago, he can't be real- can he?

"But- you died."

"Yes. But I came to tell you that I am proud of you. I watched you grow up, Dean. I wanted to tell you how much I care."

Dean rubs his eyes, trying to hold back the tears that he knows want to come. "Why has everyone been saying that?"

"That they care?" John sounds confused. 

"That they're  proud."

"Because we are. Because," John teaches forwards to put his hand on Dean's shoulder. "You're worth being proud of."

Dean steps forward, letting his hands wrap around the specter's torso. He's tired, and scared, and he's overcome with emotion. "Dad," he starts, muffled by the leather of John's coat. "How do I know this is real? That this is happening, that this isn't just some dream? I mean, am I really graduating college?"

"Yes, you are. And this is real, all of it."

"Even you?"

"Yes."

"You're here."

"In a way, yes."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm only here for you. The big guy wants me to ask something of you."

Dean pulls back and he searches his father's face for a sign. "What do you mean?"

"He wants-" John's face darkens and he dissappears, and the bathroom door swings open. Sammy stands there, grinning and covering his eyes. 

"Please tell me you're not naked, Dean."

"Yes, Sammy, I am naked and I am wet and I am closing the door on you." he shuts the door and locks it, finishing stripping. One last glance into the mirror, then he gets into the shower. 

The water is freezing at first, and Dean gasps in surprise. But then it turns hot, hotter than he normally goes for. He tries to turn it back down, but it doesn't change. He jumps out of the cubicle, nearly slipping on the tiled floor. 

Dean stands against the wooden door of the bathroom, naked, panting, and wet, eyes darting wildly around the room. 

So, the last ten minutes had been weirder than normal. Who said graduating was easy?

With his heart in his throat, Dean dries off, having to wet down a washcloth to get the blood off. He dresses again, in a pair of sweatpants, shirt, and nothing else. He'll have to get into the monkey suit anyways, so he will do his best to postpone this inevitability. 

And, somewhere inbetween slipping on the pants and toweling his hair, Dean forgets about the short, uncomfortable meeting with his father. He forgets to talk to his mother about it, forgets to do anything to keep it from happening again. 

Lunch is nice. Bacon cheeseburgers, Doritos, and coffee. Sam talks about his day at school and about a girl who asked him out. They shared numbers and emails, and Sam is planning to take her to dinner, maybe a movie too. 

Mary tells her sons about developments in the custody battle for Adam, the third kid she had on a trip somewhere to investigate a ghoul problem in some town A friend of hers had come to the house and made sure Sam and Dean made it to school and home, and that they ate healthy foods. The trip had lasted longer than intended, and when Mom came home she was pregnant. The father wanted his son, but Mom was fighting the court. The odds were in her favor, but they were looking into what kind of home life shed given her other two sons. 

Adam, now thirteen, talks about how his teacher had loved his project on "fictional creatures". Dean is proud of him, and how well he has had it. Mom learned from her mistakes with Sam and Dean- of which there were few- and raised them with as much knowledge as they could take in. For every week of school, there has been a weekend of real-world horrors and wonders. Dean was the only one who had been taught to kill creatures, though, because he was eldest and most mature with weapons and his task. 

Dean loves his family, and their quirks and their faults, and he loves when they're sitting around the kitchen table, smiling and laughing and teasing each other. 

This is where he wants to be. Girls come and go, boys have never been as stable as Dean needed or as wild as he'd been. Family stuck together, family could handle everything. His future is here, with his mother and his brothers. Maybe one day someone would join them, sit at his side, and be apart of it all, but that wasn't now. For now, this was enough. 


End file.
